


The Child is Father to the Man

by AtlinMerrick



Series: The Child is Father to the Man [1]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Canon, Canon Universe, Kid Fic, Kylux - Freeform, M/M, little boys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 19:09:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21184514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AtlinMerrick/pseuds/AtlinMerrick
Summary: Armitage and Ben meet when they are little. They fight…sort of.(Hux grows up in a military household but with two mostly-normal parents in this Star Wars universe AU. Ben's upbringing is canonesque except no Snoke.)





	The Child is Father to the Man

Everyone had a lightsaber, just _everyone._

As if that wasn't bad enough, every kid having a replica of a rare weapon like that, they all danced around with them too, and that was just stupid because if you were doing all of that spinning and stuff, well obviously you had your back to your enemy and it would be easy to just…well to just…

This was where six-year-old Armitage Hux usually stopped his mental grousing because he wasn't sure what happened if a lightsaber hit you, not for real. When Oeec hit him with hers it stung, but he knew sabers didn't sting and leave a red mark, they killed people. It's just that Ari was only little, so he wasn't really sure how_._

He'd asked his mammy once but she said it didn't matter, just don't get in the way of one because dead was dead, no matter how it was done. Mam was always like that, telling the end instead of the middle. Daddy always told the middle and never the end, so that was good he guessed. The funny thing is he never asked daddy about lightsabers. Maybe he didn't really want to know.

Another funny thing and he would only realize it much later when he grew up, but, though he was the only child of two soldiers, neither of Ari's parents talked much about what they did. Oh they talked a lot about what _he_ should do, because apparently his behaviour reflected on their rank—mother always said that but, true to form, she never said _how—_and so it was expected that Armitage Hux would "comport himself with dignity," said daddy.

Fine. Ari could do that. So he did. He kept himself neat and always stood with his hands at his sides and his knees together and his feet flat on the floor. Just like today. And today his hair was especially good too, brushed back off his face so he could watch the sbaqua teacher extra-carefully because soon it would be his turn to fight and he wanted to do it right, not with all that jabbing and twirling.

Though he was good at just about everything, Ari didn't know how to do battles yet, but he knew that was not the right way and so this was the class he always looked forward to most.

It was the opposite for Ben Organa.

Ben didn't want to be good at sabers or fighting. He kind of didn't want to be good at anything. He just wanted to…well sometimes he just wanted to watch things, figure them out, figure out why he _knew_ stuff, like what a kid was going to do before they did it but so far it was confusing and so he just wanted to hide and think and _be_ but no, right now he was standing in a far corner of the joo, watching the red-haired kid next to him. He looked really excited, like he wanted to do all that stupid pretend-fighting, but…

_…you're too little,_ Ben said. Except he didn't say it with his mouth.

Armitage Hux turned and looked at the dark-haired kid next to him. He knew the kid hadn't said a word but he'd _heard_ him anyhow and that was like all the dancing everyone was doing when they were fighting—it didn't make sense.

Still and all, Ari answered. "You're big," he said, because it was true. The other boy was nearly a head taller than every other kid.

The boy's eyebrows danced up his forehead. Then he said, _how old are you?_ but he didn't move his mouth.

"I'm a little bit more than six and a half, how old are you?"

It was weird what happened next. The black-haired kid shrunk. He didn't really of course, he was obviously Human, not one of those Lleev creatures who could fit inside his boot just as easy as fill up his daddy's clothes. No he just sort of shrunk so that he seemed the same size as Armitage and later, much later, Ari would know how Ben did that because he'd catch him at it. Rounding his shoulders, bending his knees, tucking his elbows but now, now the five-year-old kid who looked maybe eight tried to make himself look smaller, like the right-sized boy beside him.

Like Armitage Hux.

_I'll be six. _He _would_ be, just not…not for quite awhile yet.

Ari looked at their classmates so Ben did, too. "They shouldn't spin around all the time."

_Yes they should._

Armitage Nall K'i Hux looked at the boy beside him and was so eye-wideningly shocked that he took a step back. In the first move of a dance they'd dance for the next decade, until one finally kissed the other, Ben Kenobi Naberrie Amidala Skywalker Solo Organa took a step toward the red-haired boy.

Ari blink-blinked but could not properly form the words of his disbelief and so he thought them.

_But it's dangerous!_

As if he could only mindread _or_ project his thoughts—because right now that was exactly the limit of what Ben could do—the child said out loud, "Only if you do it at the wrong time."

For the next five minutes they talked in their weird way, one boy who had no interest in fighting and another boy who wanted to be good at everything.

The boy born to a line of unwilling warriors told the child of soldiers how a timely spin or a properly executed swirl could give your weapon not only destructive momentum, but more importantly extend your _reach._ And when Armitage Hux asked about what lightsabers did when they _did_ reach you, well Ben Organa graphically answered, the details more grizzly and blood-splashing than the reality because when a little boy reads the minds of old soldiers he doesn't know they may embellish memories or mix one with the other.

They'd only gotten to the bit about how a real lightsaber made zzzzizzing sounds when the teacher called on them to do mock battle.

They marched forward, Ben picking a plasticlear red saber because it matched the hair of the boy he was going to fight, Ari picking a darksaber for the very same reason.

Then the five-year-old and the six-year-old raised their weapons and…danced.

Ari swung first but he knew, he absolutely knew Ben would step back just as his saber cut the air, because Ben _told_ him, same as Ben jabbed at Ari's belly a split second after Ari told him he was going to move aside.

Ben leapt from harm just as Ari spun, the tip of his saber just touching a curl at Ben's neck. Ari moved right as Ben's saber sliced an inch to the left and so it went, they talked without talking, fought without fighting for minutes that seemed an hour, until the teacher called a halt and then class was over just like that.

Time still seemed to drip-drip slow as zingbee honey because, breathing fast, thin limbs shaking, plasticlear sabers hanging limp from small hands, the two boys looked at each other for what felt like forever and though neither said anything at all, not with his mouth or his mind, they both heard real words just then, words they'd know the certainty of a decade from now.

_You._

_I pick you._

—  
_I'll write more in this universe, and in this canon-era AU, the Galactic Concordance held and there is no war, just tense peace. So Hux was never taken from his mother, his father never had the chance to do the awful Project Harvester stuff, and Snoke had no power vacuum to fill. And Ari & Ben meet when they are little…  
_


End file.
